In the packaging industry, corrugated and fiberboard cartons have been used for many years. Various machines have been developed which are capable of sealing such cartons either by gluing the flaps, taping the flaps or by stapling or otherwise securing the flaps by fasteners to maintain the flaps in a closed position. Many of these machines are designed to accept cartons of random width and height by providing various types of means to manually and automatically control the transverse movement of sidearm assemblies associated therewith and the vertical movement of the top head sealing assembly. Examples of such machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,044,527, 4,079,577 and 4,173,105 which patents have the same inventive entity and assignee as the present invention.
Machines are also known in the industry which erect cartons from the folded or knockdown form to the erected rectangular form for use. Previously known apparatus received knockdown cartons stacked in a substantially vertical orientation in a magazine section awaiting erection. Suction cups mounted on a pivot arm assembly secure the carton blank and move it from the magazine section to a setup section. Movement of the pivot arm from the magazine section to the setup section with the carton blank secured therein is effective to set up the carton blank into a tubular form. The flap folding section infolds the trailing bottom and end flaps and side bottom flaps through longitudinal extending plow members in converging side plow beams as the cartons move through the flap folding sections. Examples of such machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,579,551, 4,632,666, 4,892,513 and 5,112,288 which patents have the same assignee as the present invention.
Another device is known in the industry which retains the bottom flaps of the carton in their infolded position prior to sealing in a manner which permits the filling of the carton. This is a simple device which consists of a base plate to which a pair of upwardly and outwardly longitudinally extending flap retaining flanges are mounted. Flap retaining flanges are mounted a short distance from the base plate to receive and retain the corresponding side flaps of a carton therebetween. The carton can then be packed while the flaps are maintained in their closed position. An example of this device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,381, which patent has the same inventive entity and assignee as the present invention.